Mission & Justice

John Wiseman; 27/9/08

Kevin Rudd’s co-operative federalism was flung aside yesterday as tensions over the stricken Murray-Darling triggered a slanging match between the leaders of the key basin states whose farmers and irrigators depend on the river system. The brawl was sparked by Victorian Premier John Brumby, who lashed out at NSW and South Australia for not meeting water savings targets under the Living Murray initiative, which aims to restore the river system to good health. Premiers Nathan Rees and Mike Rann both rebuked their Victorian counterpart, with the row culminating in Mr Brumby being accused of indulging in “voodoo economics”.

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Siobhain Ryan; 19/9/08

The influential Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists is expected to call for a radical overhaul of irrigation and cuts to water allocations in the Murray-Darling Basin at a Senate inquiry in Canberra today. Wentworth Group director Peter Cosier and fellow members Bruce Thoms, John Williams and Mike Young will argue that irrigation allocations should be wound back in light of the drought and climate change forecasts and provide enough water for the rivers, including South Australia’s thirsty Coorong and lower lakes, to be healthy and sustainable. The group wants the cutbacks based on the CSIRO’s Sustainable Yields Project, which calculated the current take of water from each of the 23 river valleys of the basin, and Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s sustainable rivers audit, which found only one river in the basin, the Paroo, was in good condition.

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Letter; 17/9/08; http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/ theaustralian/comments/save_rivers_from_irrigators/

The irrigators of this country have never let the facts stand in the way of their self-interest (”Farmers lobby for city water cuts”, 16/9), but let’s look at the numbers again anyway and see if we can’t get through to them. All the cities and towns in the Murray-Darling Basin use 2 per cent of the available water—irrigators account for over 83 per cent. So the entire consumption of all cities and towns is used up by irrigators in less than nine days. Cotton, irrigated cereal-cropping (including rice) and irrigated pasture together account for over 35 per cent of consumption. Banning these unsustainable crops for just one year would free up enough water to allow every city and town in the basin to double its consumption for the next 17 1/2 years. Legislating permanently against these activities would forever end basin water shortages, leaving plenty for vegetables, fruit, nuts and even wine grapes, as well as the cities and towns. Or by simply removing the tax deductibility of water costs to all irrigators, we could slash basin-wide consumption by at least 10 per cent—leaving plenty for the big smoke and the environment. The rivers need saving from the irrigators, not for them, starting now. Stephan Hammat; Prospect, SA

Greg Roberts; 4/9/08

One of the biggest irrigation properties on the Darling River is about to fall into foreign hands after the Rudd Government rejected an offer to buy it. Darling Farms managing director Ian Cole said the purchase would have allowed the immediate release of 20,000 megalitres of water into the ailing Murray-Darling system. Mr Cole said federal Water Minister Penny Wong had been interested in buying the property but her office claimed the commonwealth lacked the power. A European consortium was “very interested” in acquiring the property, and would undertake a second inspection today.

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John Wiseman; 3/9/08

Farm production worth more than $1 billion would be destroyed if more Murray River water was diverted to the stricken lower lakes to avert acid poisoning, official advice to the federal Government reveals. The warning, contained in a submission released yesterday by Water Minister Penny Wong, underlines how the Murray-Darling river system is being engulfed by an ecological crisis of unprecedented scope. Hopes that winter rains had brought a lengthy reprieve for the lower lakes at the mouth of the Murray were dashed by advice to Senator Wong from her department, revealing that a decision on whether to inundate them with sea water might have to be made as soon as February. At the same time yesterday, the Murray-Darling Basin Commission said this winter had been the fifth-driest in the past 115 years. With another long, rainless summer looming, the situation in the lower basin was the worst since records began in 1892. “We’re continuing to establish new records that we don’t particularly wish to establish,” the commission’s chief executive, Wendy Craik, said. “There’s really no relief in sight. I think we can say the drought’s continuing to worsen.”

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Asa Wahlquist; 1/9/08

Tired of watching country towns suffer a lingering death from dehydration, Coleambally in NSW is offering itself and its generous water supply for sale for a cool $3.5 billion. The price - $400,000 more than the Government’s total buyback budget - would include 600 gigalitres of water from the Murrumbidgee River in southwest NSW as well as the town, home to 600 people. “I’m just trying to see how serious the Government is in its water purchase program,” said Robert Black, chairman of the Coleambally Irrigation Area. Mr Black believes the present ad hoc system of water buybacks does not take account of the impact such sales have on a surrounding community. “There is no compassion whatsoever from the federal Government for the shop owners, the fuel agents, Elders, the chemical suppliers,” he said.

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Pia Akerman; 30/8/08

The “cancer” of the Murray - acid sulphate soils - has spread to the river system’s northern catchments in Queensland where up to 200 sites are under investigation by scientists. The Murray-Darling Basin Commission ordered the investigation in southern Queensland amid mounting evidence that wetlands and rivers in the north of the system were succumbing to the poisoning that threatened to overwhelm the Murray’s lower lakes in South Australia. Pockets of acidification are also emerging in northern Victoria and along the Murray River in southwestern NSW. Acid sulphate soils can occur when river and lake beds are exposed to the air as water levels fall, triggering a toxic chemical reaction.

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Cathy Alexander; 27-28/8/08

An emergency inquiry will be held into how to save the Murray-Darling’s ailing lower lakes. The Senate today voted for a lightning inquiry which has just one month to find a solution to the woes of Australia’s biggest river system. The Greens, coalition and independent senators teamed up to support the inquiry - and the government did not oppose the move.Senators will look into how much water is available in the Murray-Darling, how it could be purchased, and whether it would make it all the way to the lower lakes.

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Greg Roberts; 27/8/08

Toorale station in northwestern NSW is expected to be purchased by Canberra in partnership with NSW for an estimated $25 million, in response to mounting pressure on the Rudd Government to respond more quickly to the water crisis in the Murray-Darling Basin. Dams across the Warrego River on the 92,000ha cotton and grazing operation would be removed to boost flows from Queensland to the basin by up to 90 gigalitres a year. Government sources said federal Water Minister Penny Wong was anxious to make some high-profile acquisitions under the National Water Plan, which included $3 billion for allocation purchases, as criticism mounted of the Government’s handling of the water crisis.

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Tony Wright; 23/8/08

The evening is flaring tangerine above the horizon, spilling copper and silver across the wide waters of Gidgee Lake. Pelicans cruise among drowned and twisted trees, gidyeas that give the lake its name. A cormorant struggles to swallow a fish and the sunset catches a jumbo jet’s vapour trail, turning it pink and gold. As the lower lakes of the Murray-Darling face doom, this is a picture to make South Australians weep.

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